Last man standing: wrestler advances to state

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By the time the final whistle blew at the Barrington Sectional Wrestling Tournament last Saturday, Josh Dyer, junior, was the only one of seven Lake Zurich wrestlers standing on the podium- and it hadn’t been an easy journey.

“A couple weeks ago I suffered a concussion in a match, so I had to sit out because of that for awhile,” Dyer said. “I ended up having to wrestle the same kid who gave me the concussion at sectionals, and if I lost, I would have had been out of the tournament. It was pretty hard when that was always in the back of my mind.”

Even with injury nagging in the back of his mind, Dyer worked in the days leading up to Sectionals to find new ways to conquer his concussion-inducing opponent.

“I changed my strategy from how I wrestled him last time by sitting back and not being as aggressive. Instead, I waited for him to make a mistake before I made my moves,” Dyer said.

The new strategy paid off. Dyer ended up placing fourth overall after losing the third place match, which locked him in as a competitor this weekend in Champaign.

“Making it to State was a goal of mine this year, and yeah, sometimes you don’t reach those goals, but you have to keep working for it and pushing harder for it and eventually you’ll achieve it,” Dyer said. “These are the best of the best guys in the state and there isn’t going to be an easy match, so I’m just going to give it all I have and hope for the best.”

Though Dyer already reached his personal goal, he knows that it wouldn’t have been possible without people pushing him to be his best.

“I do a lot of things for my grandpa because he passed away a pretty long time ago and he has always meant a lot to me,” Dyer said. “My team has also helped a lot in supporting me to get to this point. A couple guys are coming down to State, others are coming in to practice with me, and everyone has done a really good job of making things feel like a team atmosphere.”

Although his team will not be competing with him on the mat, the support of everyone involved has been a big boost, Dyer said.

“I just want to thank all of the people who have helped me get to this point,” Dyer said. “Being the only qualifier, you have everyone behind you and you have to represent everyone. So because of that, I’m really looking forward to having all of Lake Zurich on my back and going out there and representing the community.”